I’ve added all four of the original ZZT games: Town of ZZT, Caves of ZZT, Dungeons of ZZT and City of ZZT. It prompted a little internal debate with myself about whether or not they should be classified as “Roguelikes” – after all, technically, they’re nothing like rogue. They’re just adventure games with ASCII graphics. They’re also real time, which I’m led to understand is a big fundamental genre-defining aspect of roguelikes. But I really don’t know enough about the genre to be sure.

Then again, my understanding of things is that the original definition has expanded somewhat – that nowadays, it really just comes down to being an ASCII adventure game (and even that exludes a few games that are generally considered to be roguelikes). I was hoping that this definition over at roguebasin would clear things up a little, but as I expected there isn’t really a clear cut answer. I guess it doesn’t really matter anyway.